A big heart
196. In addition to the small circle of the couple and their children, there is the larger family, which cannot be overlooked. Indeed, "the love between a husband and wife and, in a derivative and broader way, the love between members of the same family - between parents and children, brothers and sisters and relatives and members of the household - is give life and sustenance by an unceasing inner dynamism leading the family to ever deeper and more intense communion, which is the foundation and soul of the community of marriage and the family".223 Friends and other families are part of this larger family, as well as communities of families who support one another in their difficulties, their social commitments and their faith.
223 John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (22 November 1981), 18: AAS 74 (1982), 101.
